October 4, 2012

What's Next for Russia's Protest Movement?

If anyone deserves the title of enfant terrible among Russian oppositionists, it is 28-year-old Ilya Yashin, a key figure of the Solidarnost movement and head of the Moscow branch of the People's Freedom Party. Until recently head of the longstanding liberal Yabloko party's youth department, Yashin has spent much of his adult life sparring with the regime of Vladimir Putin, and sometimes literally, socking, kicking, and otherwise duking it out (after provocation) with presumed members of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi -- in addition to helping arrange unauthorized demonstrations and doing jail time as a result.

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